UHF use.....

Submitted: Monday, Jul 12, 2004 at 06:40

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Member - Brian (Gold Coast)

I posted this reply to Ruths earlier Big Red report, but thought I would copy it here anyway. Firstly, I realize that UHF is "free-to-air", I realize that swearing can't be stopped, I realize I can (and do) turn the UHF off.

Listening in to the highway channel is great for the info that the truckies exchange (bless 'em) and the occassional swear word tends to get overlooked.

We have just returned from two weeks between Gold Coast and Canberra, the language on UHF around Sydney is woeful. We simply turned it off, obviously you can't stop it any other way. I don't mean swearing to accentuate a point, I mean swearing for the sake of swearing coupled with abusive swearing for no apparent reason. And it seems every channell we tried had someone on there and their dictionaries all started at the letter "F". Why on earth people can't talk over the UHF without resorting to bad language is beyond me, but like I said, we can't stop it so we turn it off. Once beyond "City Limits" the language was cut to a minimum, and the useful information about the road ahead outweighs the occassional curse.

Our 11 year old son is mildly autistic, (Aspergers Syndrome), and lives by our rules as a matter of ritual. "Dad, how come that man on the radio is allowed to swear?" becomes a rather tricky question to answer to a kid who is taught not to swear! LOL....

Like I said, I can't stop it.... doesn't mean I can't whinge about it!!!! LOL

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Reply By: Member - Ruth D (QLD) - Monday, Jul 12, 2004 at 07:35

Monday, Jul 12, 2004 at 07:35

Thanks for that Brian, in the instance I referred to before, most small outback towns and properties which surround them rely on the UHF as a means of communications. Most Australians don't realise that most small towns and properties DO NOT HAVE mobile telephone service, which means the UHF is their communications between house and paddock and ringers doing musters, helicopters doing musters etc. where there are long distances, say 300 kilometres of dirt roads the UHF is sometimes the only way there is to communicate road accidents, farm accidents etc. and outback people rely on this.
I totally agree about the swearing though on all channels - can't see the need for it.

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Follow Up By: Member - Brian (Gold Coast) - Monday, Jul 12, 2004 at 07:47

Monday, Jul 12, 2004 at 07:47

Ruth,
I see your point and am in agrreance (Is that a word??) with this. I see UHF as a great tool to use for comms..... others see it as a toy that has been designed for them alone. We are quite strict with the use of our radios.. others in our club are not so strict. But on a club trip where the only people being inconvenianced is our own members... I guess it's something we can put up with.
Another thing I noticed is that while here on the Gold Coast our chanels are for the most part "empty" most of the time, in Sydney just about every channel had traffic. And most of that traffic was pointless rubbish containing very few useful examples of the english language. I haven't had the pleasure of going "outback" yet, but would imagine that it would be rare to find all channels "busy" at any one time, given the population/distances involved? To me, it doesn't seem hard to change channels if we're in someone elses "backyard".......... unfortunately common courtesy often is overlooked.

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